Roaches shut down famous Hurricane restaurant

The restaurant was shut down as a temporary emergency closure with 19 violations.

ST. PETE BEACH, Florida -- Shocking news as health code violations forced the temporary closure of one of the Bay area's best known beach restaurants.

The Hurricane Seafood Restaurant is located along the 800 block of Gulf Way along the historic Pass-a-Grille on St. Pete Beach.

A health inspector visited the restaurant May 22 following an anonymous complaint discovering live roaches in the kitchen, along the cook's line, near a printer a small printer for customers' orders and more in the downstairs bar area.

The restaurant was shut down as a temporary emergency closure with 19 violations including the heavy accumulation of a black substance, grease and or food debris inside the oven, temperature violations on the diced ham, spinach and feta, and roach excrement around the ice tea dispenser.

"I was shocked," said Hurricane general manager Rick Falkenstein who indicated the problem stemmed from an ice cream freezer brought into the kitchen from a storage area outside.

"We brought it in, put it in action and then it had some of the… roaches in it," said Falkenstein. "I should have known better."

He says those German Cockroaches were immediately treated by the restaurant's pest control company which also sealed up some holes in the wall.

"We had it all cleaned up. It wasn't like the whole place was infested. It was isolated to that one particular area."

Falkenstein showed us the drink area where the inspector reported finding roach excrement and everything appeared to be cleaned up.

The Hurricane was cleared by the inspector to reopen 4 1/2 hours after the temporary closure.

Management now has an employee who arrives every morning to meticulously check for any health code violations.

Falkenstein wants customers to know cleanliness in the kitchen is a top priority.

"I can promise them, I'm here in the morning along with that other gentleman and we're going to do that as long as that takes."

Take a look at the Hurricane's full inspection history here.